


John Had No Choice, Despite What People Think

by TalkMagically



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Meta Essay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 13:53:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16955304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TalkMagically/pseuds/TalkMagically
Summary: A short meta summary that I posted back in 2014. It was more of a rant at the time, but the point still applies.





	John Had No Choice, Despite What People Think

Why do people think Dean and Sam growing up a normal childhood was an option? That John had a legitimate choice in the kind of life the boys would have? I’m being serious. Why do people still think that?

We have been told time and time again that, in the show, free will is an illusion and that they would always end up where they are. They were always going to be hunters. They were always going to be chess pieces in the Apocalypse. They were always going to have the desire to save people.

Zachariah’s little experiment with turning Dean and Sam into Smith and Wesson proved a few details about their base personalities. Dean acts to blend in, but has no hesitation about sticking out if the occasion calls for it. Sam will always hate the life he “grew up” with and desire something more, but he’ll still stand back and approach things with a logical mindset if things suddenly become off kilter. They both will act to save someone they barely know, even at the risk of their own lives.

Dean and Sam were  _always_  going to be they way they are. Heaven made sure of it. Hell made sure of it. Those two men are one of the few joint Heaven-Hell projects in existence, and yet people still have the gall to say “Well, John could have  _chosen_  to give them a normal childhood”? He damn well  _didn’t_ have a choice in what kind of men Dean and Sam were going to become.

If you honestly believe that John had a choice then you are ignoring one of the biggest plot arcs of Season Five, and it’s all because you refuse to admit that John isn’t the asshole that widespread fanon makes him out to be. If John had made the choice to ignore the threat to his children’s lives and continue on with their apple pie life, Heaven and/or Hell would have stepped in and promptly stomped that ideal life out of existence. They  _needed_  Dean and Sam to be the way they are, and both sides weren’t shy about playing dirty to get what they wanted.


End file.
